Giveaway: “The Perfect Clothespin, The Experiment”

In the Aug/Sept issue of MaryJanesFarm, “The Experiment” (on newsstands July 14), we led you here to my daily journal for a chance to win a free sampling of “the perfect clothespin,” featured in our “Home Safe Home” section.

clothespins_1836

You probably know that we love clothespins here at MaryJanesFarm. You might have seen the article, “The Humble Clothespin,” in our “Celebrating 15 Years” Feb/Mar 2015 issue. And recently, we discovered another small company that makes old-fashioned wooden clothespins by hand. Albert Crooks and his 15-year-old son, Al, craft beautiful, sturdy clothespins from ash (the perfect hardwood for clothespins) and heavy-duty, stainless-steel springs manufactured in the U.S. “No more using four or five cheap clothespins to hang a wet towel to line dry. Our clothespins are tumble sanded and are finished with tung oil, which will not leach out and stain your laundry.” For beautiful clothespins that will last a lifetime, visit AllAmericanClothespins.com.

For a chance to win a sampling of “the perfect clothespin,” tell me how hanging laundry on the line makes you feel in the comments below. We’ll toss your name in a hat and draw one lucky winner in mid-September, when the Aug/Sept issue expires on newsstands. Stay tuned for more magazine-related giveaways!

If you’re not yet a subscriber to MaryJanesFarm, subscribe here for only $19.95/year.

  1. Lisa says:

    Lau dry hanging on the line makes me feel like warm sunshine. I love taking the laundry off the line burying nose, taking a deep breath and smelling the outdoors.

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I ordered a batch of sturdy American made clothes pins this past Fall and what a difference they make. Heavy clothing stays in place when you clip it to the line and they don’t just suddenly break for no good reason. They do cost more but will obviously last for generations. Please add my name to this opportunity because I would like to replace all those cheap ones once and for all!!

  3. stella says:

    Hanging clothes on the line makes me feel free. Somehow watching my clothes blow in the wind makes me feel like I too can fly! 🙂

  4. CJ Armstrong says:

    When I was growing up on the farm we had to haul water for domestic use so my mom always did laundry in town at a laundromat that had wringer washers. Then we hauled them home and hung them out, no matter the weather. I did NOT like that in the winter because it was cold and they just froze. Then we had to bring them in and hang them in the house.
    For many years after I was married I had no interest in hanging clothes on a clothesline but we lived in the city and air quality wasn’t conducive to that anyway.
    Since we’ve been back in the country in Colorado, right back where I started, I’ve been hanging my clothes out. I love the smell of our freshly dried laundry after it’s been out in the fresh Colorado air and sunshine. Makes me remember, with fondness, my mom, our home and farm and the wonderful smell of laundry dried outside!

  5. Karlyne says:

    How do I feel when I hang clothes out on the line? Virtuous!

  6. Mary Beth Schwarz says:

    Hanging clothes on the clothes line in the back yard always takes me back to childhood when i helped my mom hang the clothes and then took them off the line for her. That clean smell of sunshine fresh clothes and linens was the scent of home in the 1950s and 1960s.

  7. shawna m says:

    My dryer broke about two years ago & I told my husband there was no need to buy a new one. We live in Southern California so rain on my laundry is not a problem. I love to get up early to get a load of laundry on the line. One of my favorite things is to see a clothesline full of sheets blowing in the breeze. Hanging laundry makes me feel old fashioned, connected with my grandmothers & if I am doing something healthy for my family & the earth.

  8. Gail says:

    I love, love, love the smell of laundry that has dried on the line! I am going straight to the All American website to order some sturdy clothes pins! Thanks Mary Jane!

  9. Heather Sandoval says:

    Hanging laundry on the line grounds me….it makes me slow down and enjoy the process of laundry. It is a chance to get out in the fresh air and relax for a bit. Stretching and reaching as I hang laundry is the best exercise ever. And folding clothes seems easier to me fresh from the line. The clothesline gives me that extra “hand” when folding big sheets and such. I love the entire process.

  10. M.Jane Richmond says:

    Hanging clothes out on the clothesline brings back the memory of when I was 2 yrs.old, gleefully running and hiding on my Mom in and out of flapping crisp white sheets.

  11. Jan Post says:

    CLEAN!

  12. Brenda Bowman says:

    Hanging clothes on the line gives me such a warm feeling knowing that my ancestor pioneer women performed this daily ritual. The clothes on the line appeal to my need of having everything lined up and in a row also. Yeah clothespins!

  13. Raeann Dodge says:

    Hanging laundry on the line takes me back home to grandma’s farm. That sundried aroma wraps around me like her loving arms. I feel comforted.

  14. Kim says:

    I just got a clothesline put up earlier this summer after dropping hints for 3 years. 🙂 I bounced around all day smiling and so happy to finally have it. I think my husband realized how much it meant to me. I feel good not running/relying on the dryer. I love the smell the laundry has after drying outside in the sun. It also reminds me of when I was a little girl and my sister and I would run through the sheets on our mom’s clothesline enjoying the feel and smell…aahhhh.

  15. sarah says:

    I love hanging my clothes out, especially the sheets!

  16. Amazinggrace says:

    I love hanging out clothes. It makes me feel like I am taking as good of care of our clothes as possible. I have to have all the groups of clothes hung together…all the shirts together, pants, etc. lol! I feel like a real pioneer woman when I’m with my clothesline!

  17. Karen Helbig says:

    I would love to see these clothes pins. I have bought clothes pins I thought were good only to find out they don’t even hold a piece of paper.

  18. Marion says:

    I love hanging laundry outside because it saves money not running the dryer and because sheets and pillowcases smell so fresh. It also reminds me of hanging clothes out with my Mom on my grandfather’s farm when I was young.

  19. Marion says:

    I love the way sheets and pillowcases smell so fresh after drying on the line. It reminds me of summers at my grandfather’s farm whe I was young.

  20. Melissa Bennett says:

    Hanging laundry on the line makes me feel like I’m providing for my family without stressing the environment and our electric bill.

  21. anne somero says:

    Ever since I was tall enough to reach my mothers clothesline, I have been pegging laundry out on the line. On sunny days, on crisp fall days, on blustery snowy days. I see them now, when I watch the sheets swaying lazily in the breeze. Years of cloth diapers, years of Levis of all sizes, years of quilts that now are tattered beyond repair. I can smell the sunshine when I crawl in a bed newly made with fresh laundered sheets. I can hear the fleeting laughter of my family, now grown. I have told my children that when I am old and my memory is lacking, just let me go hand some laundry, and I will be young and happy again!

  22. Abby Lovett says:

    I love the smell and feel of the clothes hanging on the line. I want to wrap mysel up in the sheets! Lol.

  23. Deb says:

    Hanging laundry on the clothes line evokes such pleasant memories of when I was a young girl, living in a northern climate in winter the semi frozen clothes always smelled fresh, like the aroma of icy cold days, in warmer weather I would imagine its was how sunshine smelled. When my son was born hanging freshly laundered diapers for my baby was the best remedy for skin allergies. Now I live in the south, where I not only hang my clothes to dry, I use clothespins to hang fresh herbs to dry.

  24. Dyan Eisenberger says:

    Reminds me of home, before there were dryers! You cannot imitate the fresh smell of the outdoors!

  25. Connie Howard says:

    I enjoy the sunshine’s Vitamin D mixed with the gentle exercise, plus the fact that I’m saving money by not using my electric dryer. Sure would love to try some quality clothes pins as the cheap ones frequently go “sproing” !

  26. Connie Howard says:

    This is my current email address : )

  27. Marium Llewellyn says:

    I have always hung clothes out they smell nice and saves the earth love it

  28. maggie says:

    Hanging laundry takes me back to memories of my mom when I was young. The smell of sheets that have hung outside is heavenly.

  29. Robin Holsopple says:

    Hanging clothes on an outdoor line has become a lost art with much of the younger generation. I still love to hang clothes out to dry because I love the fresh earthly scents

  30. Robin Harris says:

    I LOVE hanging my clothes on the line! Something I never thought I would enjoy doing! It makes me feel so good to know that I am saving electricity, and making my laundry smell so good at the same time!

  31. l.manis says:

    In a few weeks I will be 70…I can, as a small child remember handing the clothespins to my grandma, and again putting them in the sack as she removed them from the dried clothing. And the wonderful fresh sunshine smell, was wonderful. Then as I started raising my own family, hanging clothes and diapers out to dry, was an enjoyable chore. Many frames of pictures have bounced through my head as I pen this. Thanks for bringing back memories! Hurray for you making the perfect clothespin!

  32. Bren D says:

    Nostalgic!! That’s what I feel when I tie my homemade apron (from MaryJane’s pattern) full of clothes pins, around my waist and carry my basket of freshly laundered clothes to the clothes line. Everyday I do laundry I think of my Gram. Reminiscent of helping do the laundry on the back porch. Using Gram’s homemade soap, watching her as she grated it into the wringer washer and adding the sorted clothes, sheets, etc. After every load was washed, put through the wringer and into the rinse tub, then through the wringer again and off to the clothes line I went with my apron full of clothes pins and basket of freshly washed clothes. The clothes were always so clean and left smelling like the summer breeze. Crawling into the fresh sheets at night was something we all looked forward to (and still do!!). There was a time, after I got a bit older, I thought we were so poor. After I became a wife and mother, I realized we were far from poor back then. I’m very thankful to my Gram. Life’s lessons. 🙂

  33. Jessica says:

    I love seeing my family’s clothes “dance” in the wind on the clothes line. Makes me away think about being a little girl running through the clothes my mother would hang on her clothes line. Nothing is better than happy memories of being a kid!

  34. Jaylyn M. says:

    I feel like I’m doing laundry the way it was intended to be done! I especially love to hang my rainbow of cloth diapers on the line for all to see!

  35. Jamie Vowell says:

    Hanging laundry brings forth happy memories – reminds me of my grandma; she always hung clothes and linens outside during the spring and summer – I loved sleeping in those fresh sheets!

  36. Nancy says:

    I use clothespins for a variety of things and finding ones that are well made and hold up can be challenging. Hanging out the laundry where a gentle breeze is blowing is the best way to go. Love you, Mary Jane!

  37. Sandy Kelley says:

    There is nothing like the smell of laundry when the sun has dried it on the line. Breathing in the sunshine is indescribable!

  38. Annette says:

    Hanging laundry always makes me feel connected to my grandma Nellie. (She) and I hang clothes with love and care for our family. So I would say I am feeling love for my family when I hang clothes out to dry.

  39. Kate E says:

    It makes me feel inspired to enjoy the weather (summer is short in Wisconsin) and create something beautiful. Also, I love the smell of line-dried laundry.

  40. Carol Hagemeier says:

    By helping cool the earth’s surface. Plus love the fresh air of my sheets being on the line. Nothing compares

  41. Ardis Rolland Boll says:

    Hanging clothes on a clothes line, brings my mother into better focus. She has been gone 12 years now, but like yesterday I remember her hanging our sheets and linens on her clothes line in the spring, summer, and fall breezes to add the outdoor’s sweet smell to our night time dreams. Thanks, Mom

  42. nanci says:

    I work in an office 3 days a week so hanging laundry on the clothesline is sometimes the only outside activity I get. I enjoy watching and listening to the birds in the yard and looking beyond the barn out into the nearby pasture to watch the cattle graze. There is nothing else that compares to getting into a bed of freshly washed sheets that were line dried!

  43. Nancy Coughlin says:

    Hanging clothes on the line out back, takes me back to the days of my youth. My Mother and Grandmother taught me how to hang clothes “properly” and why they believed it was the right way! If I questioned their reasons, they listened patiently and sometimes made changes because they had taken the time to really listen to me and agreed with my suggestions. Being out in the backyard, in the sun and the breezes was so special and I love reliving those memories.

  44. sabrina dohm says:

    Line drying brings the scent of the outdoors in and I love the way the sheets feel and the fresh scent that lingers on, its like napping on the sleeping porch! I am so happy I live without restrictions as so many people are not allowed to hang their laundry due to HOA rules.

  45. Pam mcduffee says:

    I hang out clothes every week and have searched for a good quality clothspin….think you made my day……I asked for a clothesline for my 50 th birthday….finally had to go get one on my own…..and they are hard to find….the real ones…..nothing better than line dried sheets on your bed…and the memories of all the diapers I used to hang…Years ago.

  46. Linda Bezuyen says:

    Hanging clothes on my clothesline make me feel (and know) that I’m saving MONEY – I live in Florida and clothes dry in an hour. “Sun Power” is as powerful as “Girl Power”.

  47. Gail Noll says:

    10 months a year I hang laundry here in Colorado. When my Mother passed away I didn’t go for her jewelry, I went for her clothespins. Some were more than 50 years old and I love each one of them..what a treasure.

  48. Soleil says:

    Hanging laundry on a perfect hanging day makes me feel like my great grama. She was always my roll model and I still have a problem with not having perfectly organized wash on the line. Heaven forbid I should miss a sock and have to rearrange everything! How fun to hang laundry with those wonderful clothespins.

  49. Lynanne Lawhb says:

    I have hung clothes since my mother taught me 52 years ago. The biggest kick I have gotten out of hanging clothes is not only figuring out how I can strategically place as many clothes on the line to dry. But having someone yell from the street (urban house in South Tampa) it’s so nice to see you hanging clothes on the line in the sun! Reminds me of my mother and grandmother when they did it!

  50. Stephanie Guevara says:

    When I was a child, I was given little books with happy pictures of families doing daily tasks, all with smiles on their faces. The moms were always happily hanging their wash on the line, admiring the pretty colors all dancing in the breeze. When I grew up, my electric washer and dryer was taken for granted as necessary, but a piece of true happiness was stuck in my imagination as laundry on the line, drying in the sunshine with the help of a light breeze. We finally moved to a city that allowed clotheslines and I had a line strung between the back shed and a tree. Seeing my laundry dancing on the line gave me a sense of completed joy. A bit silly, maybe, but my laundry on the line never ceased to bring a smile to my face.

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